It was not that Sam Evans hated history. He loved this history class. Mr. Schuester was the absolute best history teacher he'd ever had, without a doubt – but it did not change the fact that Sam couldn't give a rat's behind about where a man in a powdered wig would be eating dinner on a given night in 1776. So instead, he had taken to playing a game of hundred-square tic-tac-toe with himself. Mr. Schuester wouldn't mind, he thought.

The door gave a creak, and while same was enthralled with this new game he'd invented in the recesses of his spiral notebook, a girl entered with wavy brown hair, a bright red Pokemon t-shirt, knee-length Dickies shorts, and a pair of square black glasses.

"Is this – U.S. History?" she inquired quizzically. "Mr. Schuester's class? I'm new -"

"That's right! Figgins said I'd be getting a new student today," Mr. Schue said, pausing from his lecture and checking his roll call sheet on his desk. "Miss Greer?"

"Ally?"

Everyone turned around when suddenly, Sam's attention was turned to the front of the class, and the girl's face lit up with a smile.

"Hi, Sammy!" she said with a pleasant wave.

"You know each other?" Mr. Schuester inquired.

"Oh, sure!" Sam said, sitting up in his seat. "We were in diapers together – I mean, you know. Different diapers. Same time," he explained.

"Awesome!" Mr. Schue said, clapping his hands together. "Well, she can have a seat next to you, and you can get her up to speed with my class. Sound like a plan?"

And evidently, it did, as Same moved his backpack that was taking up the seat next to him for her to take. She made towards the seat, and Sam leaned over so his forearm rested on her desk.

"You're a sight for sore eyes," he laughed. "But I'm pretty sure you knew I moved back here. No text? No Facebook message? Nothin'?"

"Well, I talked to your mom before everything was finalized out here, I figured she'd tell you already," Ally said bashfully. "But I guess the saying's right about assuming," she shrugged.

In the recesses of her mind, Ally decided that she could just as well forget about the conversation he'd had with Mrs. Evans – Sam was her best friend, and even though it had seemed cloudy if they were still good friends, the way he greeted her proved in Ally's mind that they were indeed still best friends – and there was no reason to go around ruining it.

"Come to glee with me."

"What?" Ally asked with her forehead wrinkled – she'd been so immersed in her own thoughts that she had completely stopped paying attention to what he was saying.

"I'm in glee club – I know I told you about that on the phone once," he said with a lopsided grin. "And don't think I don't remember when you tried to make yourself a dress out of tin foil and call yourself Mariah Carey."

"Oh, yeah. Bring that up, that's totally not embarrassing," she said with a comical grimace.

But Ally was never one to be able to say no to Sam, and after an entire class period of pestering, he managed to get her to halfheartedly agree to come with him to the glee club meeting. The first person in the room were two students in wheelchairs – a boy with glasses, and very beautiful blonde girl.

"What's up, early birds?" Sam asked. "Excited to get your glee on?"

"Turns out, you get released early if you're in a wheelchair to avoid hallway traffic," the blonde girl said with an optimistic grin before peering around Sam at Ally. "You brought a friend?"

"Oh, yeah!" Sam said excitedly, flipping his hair and nonchalantly rubbing the back of his neck. "This is –"

"A new student?" said an almost overzealous voice behind them that made Ally jump. She turned around to see a petite, dark-haired girl enter, followed closely by a very tall, pale boy. Close behind them was an Asian couple, holding hands and mulling over what looked like a physics book. "Welcome to New Directions! I'm Rachel Berry – it's a little late in show choir season, but I'm sure we can find a place for you, maybe –"

"Maybe," Sam interrupted, clearing his throat, "You could let me introduce her to everyone before you give her a panic attack," he chuckled when he noticed how red in the face Ally went. "This is Ally Greer – my best bud from Tennessee," he said, giving her a fond clap on the shoulder that nearly made her stumble forward. "Ally, that's Quinn and Artie, Tina, Mike, Rachel, Finn –"

"Greetings, gleeophytes!"

Two girls now entered the room in cheerleading uniforms; the one who spoke was tan, with dark hair, and she immediately eyed the one unfamiliar face in the room. "I'm allergic to cats, so I think you need to take that creature off your head – oh, that's your hair. Sorry –"

"You're not allergic to cats. You're lying and Lord Tubbington knows it," interrupted the blonde cheerleader with whom she had entered hand-in-hand.

"I was just trying to welcome her," the tan girl said with a saccharine smile. "I'm Santana, and this is my girlfriend, Brittany."

Now, things had finally quieted a bit, and Ally had a chance to speak up – one word, anyway.

"Hi…"

Awkward silence. Sam couldn't stand awkward silences.

"Where's everyone at?" Sam asked suddenly, saving Ally from having to speak more for now. "I wanted Ally to meet everyone before talking to Mr. Schue about her joining –"

"I think we have an imbalance of brunettes in this glee club," came another voice – male this time- entering from the hallway. "I have a paper for government about civil rights violations and I think I'm going to write about this – who's she?"

"This is Ally," Sam said with a slight sigh, and Ally gave a small giggle at the exasperation in his voice at having to introduce her multiple times. "And Ally, this is Puck. So, you've met almost everyone," he shrugged. "Now all that's missing is –"

And right on cue, a pair of boys entered hand in hand, followed by an African American girl, all talking amiably with one another as they strolled in.

"Kurt and Blaine," Sam said. "And this is…"

The black girl paused when she noticed that Sam was introducing a girl to the rest of the glee club, and she eyed her with a strange expression. It wasn't angry by any means, but it was surprised. Confused. Questioning.

"This is Mercedes," Sam said hesitantly, only looking at her briefly. "Guys, this is Ally. She's one of my best, oldest friends. I'm trying to get her to join New Directions." And again, silence. After what felt like hours, but really was only seconds, Mercedes reached her hand towards Ally.

"Nice to meet you…"

Ally would have known that this was the Mercedes that Mary Evans had told her about, even without the introduction. She was well-dressed, she had an amazing bright smile and a warmth to her that even Ally could pick up on, even just shaking her hand. For Sam's sake, Ally gave the girl a smile, and thankfully, she would not have to try and awkwardly craft a conversation with her as Mr. Schuester finally entered.

"Awesome, Sam! You brought Miss Greer in for us – we're happy to have you," he said warmly. "I think it's only fair to ask for a small vocal sample?"

Ally paused and stared at Sam, completely dumbstruck. She'd known there would be singing, of course, but she had expected to be a quiet and appreciative audience member. Now, however, it seemed as though everyone in the room was looking at her eagerly. Sam noticed the deer-in-the-headlights expression on her face and gave her another pat on the shoulder before getting up to retrieve one of the band's guitars stored in the corner of the room.

"We have one we used to sing when we were kids," he explained to everyone. "She's just a little shy, right Ally?"

She simply nodded and swallowed hard while Sam gave the guitar a quick strum and grinned at her.

Great, Ally thought to herself. Sure, just smile away, Sammy. Smile away while you kill me with humiliation.

"I'll start," he said before getting into the starting bars of the song.

I can't remember when you weren't there
When I didn't care for anyone but you

I swear, we've been through everything there is
Can't imagine anything we've missed

Can't imagine anything the two of us can't do –

He shot her a grin and signaled the part where she always joined in, and she clenched her eyes shut and obliged.

I can't remember what I used to do
Who I trusted, who I listened to before
I swear you taught me everything I know
Can't imagine needing someone so
But through the years it seems to me
I need you more and more

Through the years, you've never let me down
You've turned my life around
The sweetest days I've found, I've found with you

Through the years, I've never been afraid

I love the life we've made

And I'm so glad I've stayed right here with you, through the years

Ally somehow managed to open her eyes somewhere during the chorus when Sam joined in with her, and she finally managed to take a breath when the song was over.

"YAY!" came a nasal, high-pitched voice in the hallway, followed by rapid clapping. Ally jumped again and turned around to see another skinny girl walking into the room. "Sorry I'm late, everyone, I know you missed me! But I'm here now to appreciate the – new… frizzy… person!" she said, taking a seat in the front row and staring almost blankly at Ally.

"And… that's Sugar," Sam laughed, nodding toward the girl. "You get used to her."

"Well, she's pretty good, she can –"

"She has about the same vocal range as Quinn, similar timbre, so with another strong mezzo-soprano, we'll have our harmonies even more on point," Rachel piped in brightly. "No offense, boys, but the tenors and baritones get a little overwhelming –"

"I'm gonna throw her a party!" Sugar interrupted as though Rachel wasn't saying anything remotely as important. "Because she's new and she looks sad and lonely and a little bit homeless. I'll ask my daddy to have our maid clean the guesthouse on Friday."

"I didn't say you'd get used to her right away," Sam muttered, noting Ally's surprised expression with amusement.

"But dress normal. Not like that," Sugar said frankly. "No shirts with Pokemon. Or Digimon. Or any other kind of 'mon'."

"I think she hates Jamaicans." Brittany piped in.

Of course, it mattered very little that Ally wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to go to a party with people she barely knew, but Sam didn't seem to think it was a bad idea. In fact, for the rest of the afternoon, he kept telling Ally that she shouldn't chicken out, that he was thrilled that she was meeting his friends, and he hoped that she'd be close to them to.

It looked like she had been roped in.